King’s Collaborates With City Ministry Partners on Day of Service

On Saturday, January 28th, 51 students, staff, and faculty of The King’s College braved a snowstorm and participated in the eighth annual King’s Day of Service, a day-long initiative to confront the spiritual and material needs of New Yorkers. While 158 students signed up to participate, four out of the seven original service partners were forced to cancel due to a significant snowfall in New York City.

Despite these cancellations, students, staff, and faculty were still able to serve the New York City community in meaningful ways at three New York City partner organizations. At The Bowery Mission, King’s students served alongside the kitchen staff to help prepare and serve both breakfast and lunch for the homeless community of New York City. At Park Slope Community Church, students assembled furniture and cleaned out storage rooms full of trash. And at the Recovery House of Worship, students organized and distributed food from the church’s food pantry to the neighborhood. The New York City partners were chosen for their faithful and impactful service to the New York City community. Through these partnerships, King’s students were able to contribute to meeting the tangible needs of our less fortunate neighbors.

Abby Roth (BUS ’23) helped to serve lunch at The Bowery Mission to over 150 men and women on a snowy, windy, and frigid day. “We worked alongside their team to serve a hot meal to those in need. Some of us worked on the line to serve the different dishes, while others collected trays and did the dishes.” Abby was thankful for the opportunity to give back to the community around King’s. Abby said, “Day of Service is an incredibly important event to King’s because it allows us to join together as a community and give back to the city that has given us so much.”

Seeing the joy of the people they were serving was one of the highlights for the students. “As we served lunch,” Moses Kazanjian (BUS ’23) said, “Several of the guests recognized that we had also helped with breakfast. They were overjoyed at this realization and began expressing how grateful they were to see people volunteer and serve their community. They continued to encourage the team and affirm everyone’s hard work.”

The Day of Service was organized by Ralph Castillo, director of Christian formation, and Moses Kazanjian, the student cabinet director of spiritual life. Moses shared that the purpose of the Day of Service was for the King’s community to “highlight, celebrate, and grow in our service together.” He said that the Day of Service was important to the King’s community in encouraging students to find organizations to volunteer with and giving them the opportunity to use their lives to help others. “Service is a spiritual discipline,” Moses added, “And I believe that in the midst of our service God uses it to shape and mold our character. I pray that students were able to grow in their desire to serve last Saturday.”